Motion sensor and dimmer installation in Seville, Spain: lighting controls for homes and buildings

Lights on only when they are needed

A good share of the electricity paid for in a building or a home goes on lights left on with nobody around: the garage lit all night, the entrance hall lit in daylight, the hallway nobody switches off. Lighting control prevents it with four tools: occupancy and motion sensors, dimmers, dusk-to-dawn switches, and timers or clocks.

Occupancy and motion sensors

A sensor switches the light on when it detects someone and off after a period without activity. There are two families:

• Motion sensor: reacts to movement. Ideal for stairs, landings, garages, storerooms and entrances.
• Occupancy sensor: detects even the small movements of a person sitting still. Ideal for toilets, offices, meeting rooms and changing rooms.

Where you notice it most:

• An occupancy sensor in the entrance hall and a motion sensor on the stairs of the building, replacing the push button with a timer.
• Communal garages, by zones, so the whole garage does not light up every time a car comes in.
• Hallways, pantries, dressing rooms and garages at home.
• Toilets and corridors in offices and shops.
• Outdoor entrances to villas, together with outdoor lighting.

Dimmers

A dimmer lets you lower the living room light to watch a film or raise it to read. With LED you have to choose carefully: the lamp or driver must be dimmable and the dimmer compatible with them. Homes mainly use phase-cut dimming; offices and shops also use 0-10 V and DALI, which let many fittings be dimmed together. If you have downlights or light fittings that flicker when dimmed, it is almost always an incompatibility, fixed by changing the dimmer or the driver.

Dusk-to-dawn switches, clocks and timers

• Dusk-to-dawn switch: switches on at nightfall and off at sunrise using a photocell. For façades, gardens, entrance halls and signs.
• Astronomical clock: calculates each day’s sunrise and sunset without a photocell, and lets you switch off at a fixed time.
• Timer: keeps the light on for a set time and switches it off. The classic on older Spanish staircases, now combined with or replaced by sensors.
• Impulse relay (telerruptor): lets you switch one light on and off from several push buttons, typical in long hallways.

Apartment buildings: the biggest saving

In the stairwells and garages of blocks in Nervión, Los Remedios, Triana, La Macarena or Pino Montano, replacing the old timed push buttons with sensors and LED fittings is one of the most profitable improvements a comunidad (community of owners) can make. We do it within our communal area lighting service, and for the full saving, combine it with the LED upgrade.

In newer buildings in Sevilla Este or Dos Hermanas, fine-tuning the existing sensors (timing, sensitivity and zones) is sometimes enough to cure lights that go off too early or do not come on.

At home: comfort and savings

Sensors in the garage, dressing room or pantry, dimmers in the living room and bedroom, and a porch that lights up by itself at dusk. If you want to go further and control lights by scene, from your phone or by voice, see smart lighting.

How we approach motion sensor and dimmer installation

1. We look at the installation and how each area is used: how many people pass, for how long and at what times.
2. We choose the type of sensor or control and its position to cover the whole route.
3. We install and adjust sensitivity, light level and on-time.
4. We test with the real fittings to make sure there is no flicker and nothing switches off too soon.

Regulations

Sensors, dimmers and lighting automation are installed according to ITC-BT-44 on lighting equipment and ITC-BT-51 on automation systems, both part of the Spanish Low Voltage Electrical Regulations. In communal areas of buildings, lighting control helps meet the lighting energy efficiency requirement of the Spanish Building Code (CTE HE 3).

Guide prices

We give you a fixed price after seeing the installation. More lighting services on the lighting page.